WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Platinum End Episode 14, "Two Lights," now streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.
In the heavenly battle royale for the throne of God, each God candidate must be ready to lay down their lives for victory, and the mighty Metropoliman was in the lead to become the new God. Metropoliman had an advanced suit, enhanced arrow powers and many minions on his side, but in the most recent episode, Mukaido Nanato defeats him with the last of his strength.
Mirai Kakehashi aims to live a peaceful and happy life free of violence, and he doesn't wish to kill Metropoliman with his own two hands. However, Mirai gladly restrains Metropoliman to win the battle, and Mukaido personally delivers the final blow, only to succumb in the hospital only minutes later. All this raises serious questions about what comes next for Mirai and his ally Saki.
Metropoliman and Mirai continue their duel until Mirai acts like a true shonen protagonist and leaps forth to take the fight to his enemy in true style. He restrains Metropoliman's right arm and blinds Metro with his angel wings, and then Saki joins her ally to completely restrain Metro at last. Mukaido Nanato, meanwhile, gathers the last of his strength and picks up Bakamatsu Ryuji's heavy assault weapon.
Metro panics and makes emotional appeals to Mirai, mentioning his desire to see his beloved little sister Rea again, and he even tries bribing Mirai and Saki with money. It does him no good. Mukaido's wife and daughter nearly died at Metro and Hajime's hands, and Mukaido clearly cannot forgive that. He's dying, so he needs closure by killing the young man who threatened his family. That's the way he operates -- now is not the time to take the high road.
Mirai still won't allow himself to kill anyone by his own hand, but he keeps Metro restrained as Mukaido obliterates his enemy with Ryuji's weapon, finishing the fight at last. Meyza the angel collects Uryu Kanade/Metropoliman's soul, and remarks that her mission is a failure, despite her high rank and Kanade's many assets. Her personality is a reflection of Metro's own, making it obvious why Meyza chose Kanade as her human champion in the race for the new God.
Then, far from Meyza's prying eyes, Mirai and Saki watch grimly as Mukaido perishes in the hospital, with his wife and daughter in the room. This firmly closes the book on this chapter of Platinum End, and it marks a turning point for the characters involved and the overall battle. However, some burning questions now linger.
Mukaido paid the ultimate price to finish off Metropoliman, which rids Mirai and Saki of their worst enemy. For now, Mirai and Saki can rest easy, but the battle royale is at most only half-finished. Several more God candidates remain, some of whom have yet to appear, and that includes the winged boy with the peculiar mask who abandoned Metropoliman earlier. Mirai cannot imagine any God candidate being more dangerous or depraved than Metropoliman, but his next enemy may be an even bigger threat in different ways, such as using sneaky tactics to lure Mirai to his doom or turn his allies against him, Death Note-style.
Most importantly, Mukaido did not receive Metro's arrows or wings when he killed Metro in battle. Mirai determines that an unknown party had shot Metro with a red arrow, and when Metropoliman died, his many wings and arrows flew through the air to reach the unknown recipient. It's possible that for all his big talk and grandiose plans for humanity, Metropoliman was a mere tool after all -- the Darth Vader to an unknown Emperor.
If so, Mirai and Saki are about to face the real boss battle of this tournament, and they might not be ready. It cost them a friend's life to take down Metro, and next time, they'll have to fight on their own. Perhaps one of them will end up paying the ultimate price next.
